Three Risks for Not Implementing Mobile Apps

Technology for business: you hear about it everywhere and how you need it. From a blog to social media, it feels like an extra hurdle to your work. Sure, all the cool kids are doing it, but is it a fad, like trucker hats? Snapchat, maybe, but mobile business apps are here to stay. Here are three reasons you need to ditch your paper and go mobile.

One: Do you Have a Mobile App? Your Competitors Do

In a tight economy, everyone is looking to keep costs low and save money. More and more organizations are seeing the benefits of faster data collection with mobile apps. Because submissions go straight to the cloud, there’s no need for data entry or retyping forms. The money you spend on data entry is the same money your competitors use to expand their business.

Every day the world is getting flatter. Business keeps getting more and more competitive. Mobile apps are no longer just about gaining an upper hand, but about keeping up. Each day you don’t make the switch, is another day your competitors get further ahead.

Two: Innovation, What’s that?

Innovation is crucial not only for success but also survival. Even if you’re not in the tech sphere, you can’t just look at this quarter, but this year and the next. You do great work, but you know there are areas of improvement. Perhaps you want to grow your market, or expand your services. But there’s no time to do that on top of everything you do. So you stick with the status quo.

Mobile apps aren’t only an innovation for businesses, but also the catalyst for further innovation. The time and money you’re spending on paperwork could be spent on growing your business. Do you have workers in the field? They could spend more hours out and about, instead of having to come back and drop off forms in the office.

Also: mobile apps give you more data to innovate successfully. Perhaps you provide landscaping services and want to expand your business. For every site you go to, you can capture GPS locations. From there, you can create a map to find out where you could grow. Mobile apps can bring you amazing insights to see your business in important and unexpected ways.

Three: It's Not You, It's Paperwork

Workforce churn is a reality for all companies. Employees leave, taking their skills, and experience with them, often at a cost to your business. In this day and age, people are moving between companies more rather than less: Fast Company reported in January that men on average will hold 11.4 jobs in their lifetime and women will hold 10.7 (source). Keeping your churn rates down will keep your costs low and your organization efficient.

One important part of that is your workforce satisfaction. Do you like paperwork? More importantly, do your workers like paperwork? I’d bet that the vast majority dread doing it. Sure, we all dislike some part of our job, but what percent of their time are they spending on paperwork?

As more organizations move towards mobile apps, there will be opportunities for your workers to ditch paperwork, and ditch your company. Why stick around when you could do more work you love and less paperwork? Switching to mobile apps will help keep your churn rate low, your workforce happy and productive. All of these factors mean for an even stronger bottom line!

Running a business isn’t easy. Staying with paper, when you are trying to get through each day, is the easy choice. Long term though? Paper will hold you back, and prevent you from growth.